GERMAN SCULPTURE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
As indicated by the career of Tieck, the line between the German sculpture of the eighteenth and that of the nineteenth century is some what nebulous; for most of the notable artists who aided in the revival of sculpture in Germany lived so long that their noblest achievements belong to the nineteenth century, many of them passing the middle of the century and almost being classed with the recent sculptors. Such, for example, was the case with Chrisfian Rauch, who is one of the foremost sculptors of the present century, and probably the greatest German sculptor since Schliiter, unless we consider Thorwaldsen as a German. Rauch was born at Waldeck in 1777 and died, at the ripe age of eighty, in 1857. He was a pupil of Schadow, and as a believer in the theories and methods of that artist added nothing to the world's art in the way of originality of style, but, being a man of greater intellectual power, his life-work has that inde finable suggestion of force which is lacking in the art of his master.
The career of Ranch, who advanced from the post of servant to Queen Louise to that of her sculptor, showed a gradual accretion of strength in expression. Previous to 1822 he executed the statue of his patroness at Charlottenburg 40, 4), which certainly ranks high as a piece of elegant work in marble, although it is not without a certain air of sentimen talism. Following this, he produced sculptured portraits of the heroes in the war of liberation, and the I Yciory of the \Valhalla. Six years before his death Rauch completed the great work of his life, which occu pied him for ten years. It is the famous monument to Frederick the Great (fikr. 5), in which that monarch and hero is represented on horse back, while around the pedestal are grouped the statues of his chief gen erals and statesmen. Beyond question it is a grand work—" one of the finest of modern times," wonderfully elaborate and admirably executed. But the difference between the sculpture of the INliddle Ages and that of recent times could hardly be more clearly represented than by a comparison between the finest work of modern German sculpture and the tombs of the Medici by Michelangelo. Even by the side of
Alfred Steveus's monument to the duke of Wellington, the most successful monumental work of this centurv, Ranch's chelancrztvre must suffer. That this is not the general opinion, however, is shown by the fact that this work has served as a model for many monuments both in Europe and in America. The figures in the surrounding group are so much smaller than the main figure that, instead of adding to the grandeur of the composition, they detract from it. To appreciate them one must stand so near that he loses the effect of the statue of the king; on the other hand, when that is properly seen, they sink into insig nificance. The effect of the whole is contradictory and confused. If Rauch had been an artist of consummate genius, be would have formed so vivid a composition of the monument in his own mind that such an error would have been avoided. A similar defect impairs the merit of much of the sculpture of the eighteenth century.
13ertel Thorwaldsen is a sculptor to whom we must assign a higher position than to the preceding. Americans may be particularly inter ested to learn that this sculptor was descended from a child born on the coast of Massachusetts when the Norsemen visited the shores of North America in the eleventh century. Thorwaldsen was born at Copenhagen in 1770; his career closed at his native place in 1844. The art-life of this great sculptor was chiefly passed in Rome, where he received the inspiration for most of his works, and it is difficult, therefore, to con sider him altogether a Danish or a German artist, although he is classed as such so long as the rule holds good of considering Alma-Tadema an English artist or Munkacsy a French painter. Thorwaldsen's talents were restricted to the art of sculpture; in other respects he did not rise above mediocrity. His first lessons were taken in the Royal Academy at Copen hagen, where he won the grand prize which paid his travelling expenses for improvement in art.